Recombinant adenoviruses are currently used for a variety of purposes, including gene transfer in vitro, vaccination in vivo, and gene therapy. Several features of adenovirus biology have made such viruses the vectors of choice for certain of these applications. For example, adenoviruses transfer genes to a broad spectrum of cell types, and gene transfer is not dependent on active cell division. Additionally, high titers of virus and high levels of transgene expression can generally be obtained.
Decades of study of adenovirus biology have resulted in a detailed picture of the viral life cycle and the functions of the majority of viral proteins. The genome of the most commonly used human adenovirus (serotype 5) consists of a linear, 36 kb, double-stranded DNA molecule. Both strands are transcribed and nearly all transcripts are heavily spliced. Viral transcription units are conventionally referred to as early (E1, E2, E3 and E4) and late, depending on their temporal expression relative to the onset of viral DNA replication. The high density and complexity of the viral transcription units poses problems for recombinant manipulation, which is therefore usually restricted to specific regions, particularly E1, E2A, E3, and E4. In most recombinant vectors, transgenes are introduced in place of E1 or E3, the former supplied exogenously. The E1 deletion renders the viruses defective for replication and incapable of producing infectious viral particles in target cells; the E3 region encodes proteins involved in evading host immunity, and is dispensable for viral production per se.
Two approaches have traditionally been used to generate recombinant adenoviruses. The first involves direct ligation of DNA fragments of the adenoviral genome to restriction endonuclease fragments containing a transgene. The low efficiency of large fragment ligations and the scarcity of unique restriction sites have made this approach technically challenging. The second and more widely used method involves homologous recombination in mammalian cells capable of complementing defective adenoviruses (“packaging lines”). Homologous recombination results in a defective adenovirus which can replicate in the packaging line (e.g., 293 or 911 cells) which supplies the missing gene products (e.g., E1). The desired recombinants are identified by screening individual plaques generated in a lawn of packaging cells. The low efficiency of homologous recombination, the need for repeated rounds of plaque purification, and the long times required for completion of the viral production process have hampered more widespread use of adenoviral vector technology. Thus there is a need in the art for more efficient and flexible techniques for generating recombinant adenoviruses.